The Violoncello and Its History

Viol da Gamba

The history of the Violoncello and Violoncello playing is connected in its early stages up to a certain point with that of the Viola da Gamba and its forerunner, “the Basso di Viola,” of the sixteenth century. This last-named instrument formed the bass in the string quartets of that time, to which also belonged, according to the Italian designation, the “Discant-Viola” or “Violetta,” as well as the “Viola d’Alta” and “di Tenore.” In Germany these instruments were called Diskant, Alto, Tenor, and Bass viols. The terms Viola and Violin,1 were at that time consequently synonymous. From the foregoing remarks it will be perceived that it is a question not of one kind, but of a whole family of stringed instruments. Descriptions and illustrations of them are found in the following music-authors of the sixteenth century.

Sebastian Virdung: “Musica getutscht,” 1511; Hans Judenkünig: “Ain schöne kunstliche Vnderwaisung,” u.s.w., 1523; Martin Agricola: “Musica instrumentalis deutsch,” 1528; Hans Gerle: “Musica Teusch” (Teutsch), 1532; Ottomar Luscinius: (Nachtgall), “Musurgia seu praxis Musicæ,” 1536; and Ganassi del Fontego: “Regola Rubertina,” 1542. Agricola’s and Gerle’s works appeared in various editions. The work of the former, as well as Luscinius’ “Musurgia,” are partly reproductions of Virdung’s “Musica getutscht.”

According to the descriptions of the above-named authors, violas or violins were of two kinds.2 Some of them had no bridge, others, on the contrary, were provided with one. For the object before us the last only claim our consideration, of which, as well as of the bridgeless violins, there were four different examples. The alto and the tenor were the same size, but of different methods of tuning. The so-called violas (fiddles) were provided with six strings which were called, like the six lute chords, Great Bumhardt (Bombarte), middle ditto (tenor); small ditto (counter-tenor); middle string (great mean); vocal string (small mean); and quint string (treble). The “Great Bumhardt” was left out in those instruments provided with five strings only. In Italy the six strings were called: Basso, Bordone, Tenore, Mezzanella or Mezzana, Sottanella or Sotana, and Canto. In France, according to Mersennus: Sixiesme, Cinquiesme, Quatriesme, Troisiesme, Seconde, and Chanterelle. The same author gives for the violas the names: “Dessus,” “Haut Contre,” “Taille,” and “Basse Contre.”

In Judenkünig’s and Hans Gerle’s works are found the accompanying illustrations of stringed instruments provided with a bridge. Their identity is unmistakable, though they differ from each other in many peculiarities of form. Both instruments represent the so-called “big fiddle”3 or “Basso di Viola.” The tuning was that of the lute, which, as an older stringed instrument, served in this respect as its model. Only in regard to the pitch did any difference exist. Judenkünig makes it thus:—

Hans Gerle, on the contrary, writes it thus:—

Here the pitch of the second is a fifth lower than the first. Judenkünig’s pitch represents the tenor and that of Gerle the bass. Agricola says in his “Musica instrumentalis,” regarding the height of pitch for the lute:

And in Hans Neusiedler’s Lute-book (1535) it is said: “He who wishes to learn how to tune the lute, let him draw up the Quint string, not too high, and not too low, a medium height, as much as the strings will bear.” Similar instructions are to be found in Gerle’s “Musica Teutsch.”

The capability of tension of the Quint string was consequently the guide for the pitch in tuning the lute—beyond this there was as yet no normal pitch—and in stringed instruments it was in every case so maintained. In playing with wind instruments the stringed instruments had, therefore, to adapt the pitch to them.

The “great violins” were, in the first half of the sixteenth century at least, according to all appearance played in two ways. From the drawing in Judenkünig’s treatise, a mode of handling is seen which requires no further explanation. That the handling of the “great violin” represented by Judenkünig without any explanation is treated of as not exceptional appears also from the accompanying vignette of another publication of that period.

The bass viol performing with the two lutists represents the same position and manner of playing as the woodcut in Judenkünig’s treatise, with the sole difference that he is holding his instrument in the left hand, whereas the peg-box of the instrument, bent sharply backwards, of Judenkünig’s player rests on his shoulder. It is very evident that in both cases scarcely more could be executed than the simplest bass accompaniment. More, however, was eventually to be produced according to the treatment of the “great violin” prescribed by Gerle. He says regarding it: “When you have according to my instructions ‘beschriben’ (noted),4 tuned and drawn up the violin, and wish to begin playing, proceed thus: Take the neck of the instrument in the left hand and the bow in the right, sit down and press the viola between the legs, that you may not strike it with the bow, and take care when you play that you draw the bow directly and evenly over the strings neither too far from nor too near the bridge5 on which the strings lie, and that you do not draw the bow over two strings at once, but only over that which is placed under the figuring in the Tablature, and this must be especially attended to.”

It appears, according to Gerle’s instructions, that the instrument of which he speaks was a so-called “Knee violin”—in Italian, “Viola da gamba.” It seems, however, that in the sixteenth century this description was not in common use. Hans Gerle, a native of Nuremberg, born about 1500, had already received important consideration during the first twenty years of the sixteenth century, not only as a skilful performer, but also as a maker of lutes and viols. Yet the making of these instruments, and especially of viols, had already been carried on at a much earlier period by others. The oldest fiddle or viola maker of whom we have any mention is a certain Kerlino, who, according to Fétis’s account, lived and worked in Brescia. It is most probable that he was a German, or at least of German extraction, for the name Kerl, in every kind of variation, both as a common and individual or family name, had been constantly in use among the German races. In the German dictionary6 of the Brothers Grimm are indicated the various forms of the name “Kerl”: Kerle, formerly Kärle; Kerls, Kerles, Kerlis, Kerli, Kerlin, Kerel, Kaerl, Kerdel, and Kirl. They are of German origin, and are derived from middle or low German, whereas the Anglo-Saxon equivalents are “Carl,” or “Ceorl.”

Originally the word “Kerl” (kerle), according to Grimm, was synonymous with “Mann” (man), and also with Ehemann (husband). But it was also used as a family or tribal name, as is proved from the names Jacob de Kerle (sixteenth century), Joh. Kaspar von Kerll (also written Kerl, Kherl, Cherle), born 1628, and Vitus Kerle (in the eighteenth century).7

Another form of “Kerl,” Kerlin, was, according to Grimm, used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Who can doubt then that the Brescian instrument maker Kerlino was of German origin?8 He was, evidently, originally called Kerl or Kerlin, to which name was added by the Italians either the diminutive syllable “ino” or the vowel “o.” It cannot be of Italian origin, for the Italian has no “k.”

Fétis informs us that Kerlino must be considered as the founder of the school of Brescian viola makers which, as the oldest in Italy from the middle of the sixteenth century, attained such a great reputation, through Gaspar da Salò and his reputed pupil, Giov. Paolo Maggini. If what appears so extremely probable has any real foundation, to a German, or, at least, to a man of German extraction, must be justly conceded the merit of having, in a measure, been the originator of the art of Italian stringed instrument making which later on developed to the highest point.

Further, we learn from Fétis that in the year 1804 a Parisian violin maker, named Koliker, was in possession of a violin which had been previously described by the French writer on music, de la Borde, containing the inscription

and which originally had been a “Viola da braccio.” Doubtless this remarkable instrument exists at the present time. Fétis, who saw it himself, describes its quality of tone as “agreeably soft and faintly subdued.” Among the composers who wrote for the viola, we must mention Giov. Battista Bonometti, born at Bergamo about the end of the sixteenth century. In 1615 he caused to be published in Vienna a collection of trios for two violas and a bass.

After Kerlino there appeared in North Italy as noted lute and viola makers the monk Pietro Dardelli, in Mantua about 1500; Gaspard Duiffopruggar, in Bologna, 1510; Venturi Linarolli (Linelli), in Venice, 1520; Peregrino Zanetto, in Brescia in 1530; and Morglato Morella, in Venice, 1550. Amongst these G. Duiffopruggar is evidently of German birth,9 and remarkable as having, as far as we can see, made the first violins.

This artist was in 1515 summoned to France by King Francis I.; he at first lived in Paris and then at Lyons. He made some excellent Bass viols (Gambas), of which two fine specimens are extant in France. A similar bass viol was represented by Raphael in his painting of St. Cecilia. This splendid picture, in the Pinacothek at Bologna, existed in 1515.

After Duiffopruggar, Andreas Amati (1520 to about 1580), the founder of the Cremona school, distinguished himself in the making of violas (as well as violins). His instruments obtained such a great reputation that Charles IX. of France, an enthusiastic amateur of music, had twenty-four violins, six tenors, and eight basses made by him. Amongst the latter there were several bass viols, like the viola da gamba. The instruments made for Charles IX. by Andrea Amati were every one of them destroyed during the French Revolution of 1792.10

Contemporaneously with Andreas Amati the manufacture of stringed instruments was vigorously carried on by Gaspard da Salò, in Brescia.

In Germany, from the second half of the sixteenth century, Lauxmin Possen, in 1550, at Schongau, subsequently instrument maker for the Hofkapelle at Munich; Joh. Kohl, who at the same time worked at Munich and in 1599 was appointed Court instrument maker there, and also Joachim Tielke were successively celebrated. The latter lived, as Gerber informs us, at Hamburg from about 1660 to 1730, and even made lutes of real ivory and ebony, the necks of which were inlaid with gold and silver and mother-of-pearl, but one especially with nine pegs of the most beautiful tortoiseshell. Tielke, however, made also violins and excellent gambas. One of these, a costly instrument which was formerly in the possession of the Elector Joh. Wilhelm of the Palatinate,11 was brought from Mannheim to the Duke of Maxburg’s Museum at Munich, and thence into the Royal Bavarian National Museum, where it is preserved as a treasure of rare value. The peg-box, the fingerboard, the tail-piece, the sides, and the back are all decorated with designs of flowers, foliage, and tendrils, as well as symbolical and allegorical representations taken from mythology, the subjects representing for the most part love and music. These decorations and designs are inlaid work in tortoiseshell, ivory, ebony, mother-of-pearl and silver.12

Another valuable specimen of a gamba made by Tielke in the year 1701, which belonged to the famous cello virtuoso, F. Servais, has been described and represented by A. J. Hipkins, of Edinburgh, in his lately published work, “Musical Instruments: Historic, Rare and Unique.”13

During the second half of the sixteenth century there must have been a considerable multiplication of the different kinds of violas then in use, and especially of the bass viol, for Michael Prätorius mentions in his “Syntagma musicum,” which appeared in 1614-1620, the following examples:

1. Very large Bass Viol with four strings (corresponding to the modern Contrabasso).

2. Great Bass Viol de Gamba in three different tunings, with five and also six strings (also like the Contrabasso).

3. Small Bass Viol de Gamba, five different examples with six, four, and three strings (answering in tone, in some measure, to the modern Violoncello).

4. Tenor and Alto Viol de Gamba, in two different pitches, with six, five, four, and three strings (answering partly to the Violoncello and partly to the modern Tenor).

5. Cant Viol de Gamba (Violetta piccola), four different kinds with six, five, four, and three strings (the tone also partly answering to the Tenor and partly to the Violin).

6. Viol Bastarda, in five different pitches, with six strings (the tone corresponding to that of the Cello).

7. Viola de Braccio, four different examples, with five and four strings (corresponding in tone partly to the Violoncello and partly to that of the Tenor).

Moreover, Prätorius mentions, under the heading “Viole de Braccio Viols,” the “Discant Viol” (our modern Violin), the small “Discant Viol” (tuned a fourth higher than our Violin), and two “very small Viols with three strings,” of which the lowest string of the first is a ninth and of the second an octave higher than the G String of the Violin.

Of the multitude of these different kinds of Viols then in use, which later on by manifold improvements were gradually reduced to a smaller number, until they resulted in the modern Violin and Tenor, as well as the Violoncello and Contrabasso, we must keep in view, for the object of the present work, the “Viola da Gamba” only, which must be regarded as the precursor of the violoncello. Prätorius gives a sketch (annexed) of the so-named instrument.

A comparison of these gambas with the sketches of viols by Judenkünig and Gerle shows what substantial alterations the stringed instrument in question underwent in the course of the second half of the sixteenth century. The neck had assumed a more modern and more convenient form for the technique of the left hand and the sounding-board had acquired more elegant and attractive outlines. At the same time the sound-holes, corresponding to the curves of the belly, were turned round and placed in a position more agreeable to the eye.

Prätorius expresses himself regarding the Viola da Gamba as follows: “Violas, viols, and violuntzes14 are of two kinds—1. Viole de gamba; 2. Viole de braccio (or de brazzio)—and the former is so called from having been held between the legs; for gamba is an Italian word and means a leg; le gambe, the legs. And since they have much larger bodies and, on account of the length of the neck, have strings of a much longer tension, they produce a mellower resonance than others, ‘di braccio,’ which are held on the arm. The two kinds are distinguished by town musicians: the viole de gamba by the name of violas: the viole ‘di braccio’ (among which Prätorius includes violins) by the name of fiddles or pollish fiddles....

“The Violes de Gamba have six strings and are tuned in fourths and in the middle a third, exactly like the six-stringed lute. Englishmen when they play them alone sometimes tune them a fourth, sometimes a fifth lower, so that the lowest strings are tuned—the bass to D, the tenor and alto to A, and the canto to E. On other occasions each one (reckoning by the chamber-pitch)15 a fifth lower—as, for example, the bass to G G, the tenor and alto to D, the canto to A; and tuning in this manner produces much more agreeable, grander, and more majestic harmonies than when the instruments are at the usual pitch.”

What Prätorius says regarding the mode and way of English viol-tuning is supplemented by Mersennus in his “Harmonie Universelle” (1636-37). This author says: “Il faut remarquer que les Anglois ioüent ordinairement leurs pièces un ton plus bas que les Français, afin d’entendre l’harmonie plus douce et plus charmante, et conséquemment que leur sixiesme chorde à vuide fait le C sol au lieu que la nostre fait le D re sol.”

The pitch then in England was a varying one, though the series of intervals borrowed from the lute, to which the gamba like the bass viol was tuned, were those which commonly prevailed.

In other respects, Mersennus gives no more explicit directions for the handling of the Viola da Gamba than Prätorius. He does not use this name for the instrument in question, but calls it “Basse de Viole.” The French designation, “Viole de jambe,” corresponding to the Italian name, appears consequently to have been in vogue later and to have been generally little used.

Like Gerle’s “great fiddle” (Basso di Viola), the Viola da Gamba had also as a rule seven frets on the fingerboard like the lute, for fixing the tones and semitones.

The gamba was played in various ways, and used for a variety of musical purposes, as a solo instrument, as well as in orchestral performances, and as an accompaniment to singing. The way in which it was valued during the first half of the seventeenth century as an obbligato accompaniment to singing, may be seen from the preface to Heinrich Schütz’s “Historia of the joyful and victorious resurrection of our only Saviour,” and so on, published in 1623. It is there said, after Schütz has named the instruments which are to accompany the parts of the Evangelists: “But when it can be done it is better that the organ and everything else should be left out and instead of these only four Viole di Gamba (which must also be present), should be used to accompany the parts of the Evangelists.”

“It will, however, be necessary that the four viols should be thoroughly ‘practised’ with the part of the Evangelist in the following manner: The Evangelist takes his part to himself, and recites it straight through without any fixed time, just as it seems correct to him, but not holding longer on one syllable than is customary in ordinary slow and distinct speaking. The violas must not mark any particular time, but only pay attention to the words recited by the Evangelist, and to their parts written below the ‘falso-bordone’ and so doing they cannot go wrong. A viola may also ‘passegiren’ amongst the others, as is usual with the falso-bordone,16 and this gives a good effect.”

It appears from the explanation that the gambas were used to support the harmonies of recitatives. The “passegiren” suggested by Schütz of one of the accompanying violas was nothing else than the usual improvised ornamental colorature or diminuendos used at that time and up to the eighteenth century.17

For solo playing gambas were used not only for the execution of monotone—viz., compositions of one part only; but also for several parts, and especially for double-stops and chords.